[Coral-List] Newly discovered reef (?) is taller than a skyscraper

[Kosmynin, Vladimir]

Doug,
The news about 500 m tall "coral reef" runs everywhere in press/internet.  It is very interesting discovery, and I spent evening watching nice video recorded from ROV.  Just one comment, which would be in the stream of this long conversation about origin of reefs and atolls, importance of geomorphology, and appropriate use of terminology. Discovered relief feature is not a reef; it is coral bank. The depth of 42 m on top of this relief feature tells us that this is not a reef by definition. Somebody would ask, if this  bank used to be a coral reef in the past.  Yes, when sea level was around 42-45 m below present, it was a reef. Was it coral reef or not can be answered by drilling and confirming if it was built or at least capped on top by substantial (meters) growth of reef-building corals.  The origin of this relief feature would need to be studied to state, for example, this this is submerged coral reef, and what it was growing on.

I think it was already mentioned, that there is no "deep-water" coral reefs, or "mesophotic coral reefs" - these are all coral banks, by definition.
I guess excessive use of term "coral reef" caused by the same desire to attract attention, as was mentioned about "Darwin was wrong" article.

Using the occasion, I would like to appreciate all who participated in the discussion about origin of atolls and Darwin's work, and especially David Blakeway for his advice to young scientists to read more old publications (which is applicable also to quite a few of not so young scientists as well).

Regards,

Vladimir Kosmynin



Message: 4

Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2020 10:17:15 -1100

From: Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com<mailto:douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>>

To: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov<mailto:coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>>

Subject: [Coral-List] new reef is tall

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Newly discovered reef is taller than a skyscraper https://secure-web.cisco.com/1kXYQikWQhsyy0Sbmq0_RER8yO-BGlw3-EpmG1L2oKVZO1qi60t2iaVmIqITZod8eSG9i7r2tCrZCiH6eTTA-xk6uDqYZnrDSKWhTJA8q4AwNDiqceqnlP-guNTN3jCbglgat3LWhMAOIiLalthKFfT3dnZ9jYV8aaZf7yivMseiOZSYhzC835XTl4R5-d1odJAx_lRx9kjPV9ssO8zvMdhRwkRQUVGLg9GsFymuVPsnmK-tUSXBIh149Rd7pE6GYn6bo8oX_MsuG861TnguOaz-hoIdXNkHMpljvw1-CIpZfno0-1nfj8gCHlvB9I5g6aWng0Ta_8uZi4PHZDsMesTLGKl3r63z9AmqHO8xifKQ/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencemag.org%2Fnews%2F2020%2F10%2Fnewly-discovered-reef-taller-skyscraper



Australian scientists discover 500 meter tall coral reef in the Great Barrier Reef- first to be discovered in over 120 years https://secure-web.cisco.com/1VEVZyzWv9953hsgqb0Hx8fSWcBcQGUSZSO-Bmooh92b9p_mtJqyb-UfA4jwqiTKe_QfnwSyBnJ6vBeDL8YrnnZ3RnTkKr2cKgaBerVE3WoVXd65zBSTzPS_jzOppudd76VDllVO2mQ2I_rhQ__GWe0hzNy2pWNVVERMAaCo8QO-oe_jcu4WxMw_8CE7Lbh2b_vIuXsW1In4m0dQc-a_28wkGFgNRIdRdoKu_uHZJYoitm4Mg10VUGyMZtcGTkSY9PHjn4_voBCu-T4Hlyo4SwBYYKit1kAproU7WqmkSNi_EMNrmhvAOw41ju4HvaHxaYRKOSWhfRk7oRFOXhVUTDg/https%3A%2F%2Fschmidtocean.org%2Faustralian-scientists-discover-500-meter-tall-coral-reef-in-the-great-barrier-reef-first-to-be-discovered-in-over-120-years%2F



Cheers, Doug